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Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

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Re: Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

#2

Post by massemphasis »

They're basically talking about social engineering. AFAIK, they used the CIA to funnel in cocaine, etc... to minority neighborhoods, then applied social engineering, adverts, and glorified drug abuse. Then the police and FBI went and killed them or jailed them. When they say "black", they effectively mean anyone they consider "non-white". They did it to all the minorities in various forms.

Re: Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

#3

Post by nilstycho »

I was skeptical of this quote, because for some reason Dan Baum sat on it for twenty years instead of publishing it in his book on the subject. Huffington Post, however, asked him about that:

Baum explained to The Huffington Post why he didn’t include the quote in his 1996 book, Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure.

“There are no authorial interviews in [Smoke and Mirrors] at all; it’s written to put the reader in the room as events transpire,” Baum said in an email. “Therefore, the quote didn’t fit. It did change all the reporting I did for the book, though, and changed the way I worked thereafter.”

The quote does, however, appear in the 2012 book The Moment, a collection of “life-changing stories” from writers and artists.

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nixon-drug-war-racist_us...)

Re: Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

#4

Post by titzer »

I have trouble taking this at face value. A second hand anecdote from Baum who recalls an in-person interview with Ehrlichman, 20 years after the fact, that already 20 years ago.

Keep in mind that Ehrlichman served jail time for his role in Watergate. That doesn't make him all that trustworthy, and it's not unreasonable to think that even being in the inner circle he hated and blamed Nixon. Ever seen a criminal come out of jail and sing the praises of their compatriots? Failing that, why in the heck would he just admit this? What's his motivation?

This story is already passing into legend. It's probably a total fabrication. Ehrlichman has been dead since 1999, btw, so who knows what he really said.

Re: Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

#6

Post by hackuser »

Many questions:

Other countries also made these drugs illegal. Was it around the same time? It seems unlikely they also had Nixon's motives, but then why did they do it? Did the U.S. establish the trend? Pressure others? Or perhaps Nixon saw the trend already happening and was opportunistic about it? Would it have happened eventually if not for Nixon?

However, if drugs are illegal in most countries, why would the U.S. incarcaration rate be higher (which I think is due to drug crimes, but I'm not sure)? Higher rates of drug use? Higher rates of incarcaration for the drug users?

I'm not trying to shoot down the story. First, I now understand why the drug war can be seen as a war on poor and minorities: The vices of the poor are criminalized; the vices of the rich (prescription drugs, pot on college campuses, etc.) are treated with a wink, shrug, or empathy. Second, I used to doubt these slightly conspiratorial political stories on their face, but then I've heard and read people talking about how these things are planned and implemented, such as using "school busing" as a dog whistle for racists. Lee Atwater, leading GOP (operative?), in 1981:

You start out in 1954 by saying, "N-ger, n-ger, n-ger." By 1968 you can't say "n-ger"-that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states' rights, and all that stuff, and you're getting so abstract. Now, you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites. ... "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "N-ger, n-ger."

http://www.thenation.com/article/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infa...

Re: Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

#7

Post by Retric »

hackuser wrote: post #6

Many questions: Other countries also made these drugs illegal. Was it around the same time? It seems unlikely they also had Nixon's motives, but then why did they do it? Did the U.S. establish the trend? Pressure others? Or perhaps Nixon saw the trend already happening and was opportunistic about it? Would it have happened eventually if not for Nixon? However, if drugs are illegal in most countries, why would the U.S…

The US did pressure plenty of countries to make drugs illegal / more illegal.

Also of note it's an old drug, with a complex history.

In 1894, the Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, commissioned by the UK Secretary of State and the government of India, was instrumental in a decision not to criminalize the drug in those countries (See Shamir and Hacker (2001) in 'further readings' below.)[15] From the year 1860, different states in the US started to implement regulations for sales of Cannabis sativa

The name marijuana (Mexican Spanish marihuana, mariguana) is associated almost exclusively with the plant's psychoactive use. The term is now well known in English largely due to the efforts of American drug prohibitionists during the 1920s and 1930s.

The Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 was the first US national law making cannabis possession illegal, with the exception of industrial or medical purposes.

Re: Nixon advisor: We created the war on drugs to “criminalize” black people and

#8

Post by merpnderp »

It's my understanding that nearly everyone who went to jail for Watergate was incredibly angry at Nixon for throwing them under the bus and letting them actually do time.

If Nixon was a bigoted racist or just a really bad president, is hard to tell from a guy with a huge ax to grind and waiting 40 years to spill the beans.

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